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No Recourse to Public/Government Funds – UPDATE

It’s been long overdue, but as promised, I did some additional research on the matter of which forms of public funds are available to migrants and why. But before I get into that, I have to tip my hat in salute to a commenter going by the name of “Mike” who had this little tidbit of information in regards to housing:

For public housing (page 13)
A British citizen or a person settled in the UK who receives housing from a local authority
can include their partner’s name on the tenancy agreement, even if their partner is subject to
immigration control.
As it is not the person subject to immigration control making the claim they must not be
considered to be claiming public funds.

Page 17 (exemptions due to being married to a Brit / EU spouse) is very unclear as to whether this only applies if claiming EU rights (Surinder Singh route). Given that I am sure that you can claim Child Benefit for a British Child when married to a Brit but having “no recourse to public funds” I think it means all spouses but I can’t find the paperwork to explain why you can get child benefit any more. And to be honest – the Home Office make so many mistakes we chose not to risk it and I claimed the child benefit as the British Citizen. The downside is that the (non-working) mother doesn’t get any NI credits for the time taken to look after the kids as you only get these if applying for Child Benefit.

Hope that helps a bit.

Again, many thanks to Mike, because that is very helpful; short of guidelines changing. That said, I would add as an extra caution that people be their own advocates in such situations and not rely solely on the councils to come to the conclusion on their own. Caseworkers may well err on the side of refusal rather than risk awarding to someone who might not be entitled to receive it.

Immigration stuff, it be a quagmire. And not in the hot, Family Guy, kind of way.